by Paula Wagner Apfelbach '83
What do you do when you've made it to the top, but the payoff isn't there? If you're Kay Smith Koplovitz '67, you share your story so that others can learn from your difficult life lessons.
Koplovitz created a name for herself in 1977 as the first female network television president and founder of USA Networks - what she describes as the first basic cable network in history. She ran that company for twenty-one years, launched the Sci-Fi Channel in 1992, and began USA International in 1994.
When her company was sold for $4.5 billion, Koplovitz learned the hard way that building something is not the same as having equity in it, and "when you don't have the equity," she says, "you don't really get the big payout."
Koplovitz decided to put her negative experiences to positive use in a new book called Bold Women, Big Ideas: Learning to Play the High-Risk Entrepreneurial Game (Public Affairs), which came out in May. Specifically, the New York City author wants to share her knowledge of the funding and ownership processes so that other women can "understand that the way they set up their businesses is going to determine what their net worth is going to be at the end of the line."